BTC-USD Solidifies Gains: BTCManager’s Week in Review February 27

Bitcoin and ether both made strong gains over the past week, while blockchain proof of concepts come to fruition, as IBM and Northern Trust introduce a blockchain for private equity while two European banking giants trial an oil trade sucessfully using distributed ledger technology.

Bulls also dominated BTC-USD, with the cryptocurrency posting a fresh all-time high on the Bitstamp exchange at $1220.00. The market has seen heightened volatility with bitcoin falling to a low of $1091.00 before staging a recovery above $1100.00. Another attempt at fresh highs look to be underway today as the conversion line (blue) moves higher and bitcoin is sitting just below the $1200 psychological level.

Several blockchain proof of concepts were introduced to the public last week. Firstly, IBM and Northern Trust announced a blockchain solution for private equities, with the technology already being implemeted for administration at Swiss asset manager Unigestion for the past month. Secondly, ING and Société Générale announced the first live oil trade on the blockchain, potentially opening up futher adoption in commodity markets.

European banking giants ING and Société Générale have successfully completed a live oil trade in cooperation with global commodity trading House Mercuria using blockchain technology announced February 22. The three trading houses have developed a blockchain prototype for paperless trading in the oil trade and finance sector aimed at reducing costs and inefficiencies.

On February 22, IBM announced it was signing a partnership with Northern Trust to start the research and development of a blockchain-based technology tool that will improve the management of private equity funds and services. Even though the private equity market is quite attractive to investors and businesses, it has not seen any new developments or innovation recently.

Just like the aftereffects of a nuclear fallout, all survivors touched by the ensuing shockwaves should exercise prudence in securing their digital assets, particularly since those assets become increasingly digital. For the blockchain community, a lesson learned the hard way by a centralized network is potentially another decentralization innovation waiting to happen.

On February 21, BTC-USD reached our target of $1136.72 and we pointed to continued bullish momentum that would push bitcoin to new highs on the Bitstamp exchange. Specifically, we noted that a critical resistance at $1119.80 is being tested and highlighted a strong buy signal on the monthly timeframe, with the Ichimoku cloud turning green, indicating the start of a long-term uptrend. On February 24, bitcoin broke a fresh all-time high on the Bitstamp exchange at $1220.00.

While BTC-USD made fresh all-time highs, so did DASH-USD, which surged to $30.00 on February 24. Also, ETH-USD continued to make gains, currently trading at $14.60 on the Kraken exchange. In the analysis, we highlighed that the current extension of BTC-USD indicates that the market structure implies a ceiling around $1800 over the long-term, with the cryptocurrency easily scaling these heights by Autumn 2017. However, a break below $1163.00 will dampen the long-term outlook.

The EDCON conference, an annual event focused on development within cryptocurrency and Ethereum in particular, came to a conclusion February 18. BTCManager outlines just a few of the most important highlights of the conference, such as SmartPool, an initiative to reduce the centralization of mining pools, the philanthropic side of Ethereum, as well as some predictions from ‘The Business Blockchain’ author William Mouyagar.

Numerai announced the issuance of its digital token, called Numeraire, to all of its 12,000 contributing data scientists. This marks the first time that a hedge fund has issued its own cryptocurrency. The idea behind issuing digital tokens to all contributing data scientists is to leverage the positive network effect by incentivising contributors to work together to create better models. Up until February 21, all data scientists have been paid in bitcoin when their models were successful, competing against each other in delivering the most successful predictions.

IOHK, headed by one of the co-founder’s of Ethereum, are collaborating with The University of Edinburgh to launch one of several research hubs to create an engine for ground-breaking blockchain technology exploration to take place alongside the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The plan is that the University of Edinburgh will open a research lab in the institution’s School of Informatics, expected to be fully operational by summer 2017, concentrating on blockchain technology while the Tokyo Institute of Technology will be focused on cryptocurrency developments.

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